Many people have nagging or reoccurring injuries or illnesses. In addition, frequently people may think they have some kind of health issue when in fact nothing is really wrong at all. For example, many people may wonder about changes in a spot of pigment on their skin or redness in their eyes. The uncertainty of not knowing whether something is a problem may be very stressful.
In actuality, often times these injuries or illnesses are not severe and do not pose a real threat to the person's health. However, sometimes these injuries should be reviewed by a medical professional to ensure their insignificance. At a minimum, a review by a medical professional would allow the person suffering to feel more secure. In addition, many remedial injuries or illnesses may be better treated with medicine which requires a prescription from a medical professional.
In some of these circumstances, it may be a huge inconvenience for the person to repeatedly make appointments with a doctor to be examined or reexamined for the same thing. Furthermore, it may be extremely costly to the patient and the insurance involved to have a patient repeatedly at the doctor's office. In addition, doctors are increasingly pressured to see more patients and need improved efficiency in office work flow. This pertains not only to patients in remote locations, but patients waiting in the medical professional's office. A huge amount of time is wasted by patients filling out paperwork or waiting to see the physician.
To this end it would be beneficial to have methods and apparatuses that would allow a patient to provide enough information to a remotely located medical professional so that the medical professional could diagnose and/or prescribe treatment for the patient. These methods and apparatuses could also enhance the in-office patient visit.